Making A Difference
by rantandrumour
Summary: Up until the last second, he'd be out there, making a difference. Oneshot


**Thanks to Ferndavant for betaing this.  
**

_But I tell you this much Bolls. Up until the last second, I will be out there making a difference. ~Gene Hunt_

Dazed and aching, Alex looked up to find Gene. He was lying next to her, blood pouring from him onto the ground. A piece of wood was sticking out of his chest, impaled just above where his aorta was.

_Why did this hurt so much? What had even happened? It had all happened so fast. A riot. There had been a riot. He had gone to the riot. Bolly had come as well. They hadn't worn riot gear. They had no shields or anything. There had been an explosion, and he had flown through the air. He felt something pierce his chest and then an overwhelming pain. _

"Gene," she said worriedly. He was breathing, but only just. She knelt over him, and stared into his face which was contorted in pain.

_He stared up at her. Her face was covered in soot and debris, dust making her hair a shade lighter. He wanted to say her name, but he couldn't. He could hardly speak. The pain snaked around his chest, growing in intensity. He tried to contain a groan as it worsened, squinting his eyes shut instead. _

He lay still for a few moments, and Alex began to fear the worst. Suddenly he opened his eyes. "Bolly," he said, staring at her unseeingly. "Bolly," he said again when she didn't reply.

_He opened his eyes again, and he couldn't see. He had gone blind. Rage burned within him. He was going to die, and he couldn't even SEE her. He cursed the bastards that had done this. At the same time, he thanked God that it was him and not her. _

Alex swallowed the lump in her throat and stared down into the face of the man that she loved. "Gene," she whispered. "Just hang on. You'll be fine."

"That's shit, Drake, and you know it," he coughed.

Alex nodded. _Why does everyone always have to pretend that the dying aren't really dying_? she wondered suddenly.

"Alex," Gene said.

"What is it Gene?"

"Hold me. Let me feel you." Alex burst into fresh tears as she heard him say this. His barriers had all been stripped away as death started to take him. He wasn't the big, proud, intimidating lion anymore. He was a man who needed love and was asking for it with his final breaths.

"Please, Bolly. I...can't see you...Let me...feel you." His words started to slow as more blood seeped out of the wound. Alex lifted Gene's head and back into her lap, running her fingers through his soot covered hair.

"Talk...to me...Alex."

_He needed to hear her. To feel her. One of his senses had already been ripped from him, he was going to use the rest to their full extent before he died._

Alex consented and talked as Gene's life seeped out from the wound in his chest. She reminded him of the cases they had worked on, of the fun they had had in Luigi's, of the nights where he had gotten so drunk she had to take him to her flat and let him sleep on the couch. She told him about her life, about where she had come from, about Molly. Gene's breathing grew slower through this, but as Alex quieted, he still found enough strength to speak.

"Knew you...were a nutter...Bolls," he whispered.

"I'm your nutter though, Gene," she said back.

He tried to smile, but it twisted into a grimace of pain. "Yes. My nutter. My Bolly. My Alex."

_She had said that she was his. He knew that she would move on after his death, but at this moment, as his body fought to end it, he knew that she loved him. As far as he was concerned she would always be his._

Gene exhaled for the last time, and tears ran down Alex's face, mingling with the blood on Gene's and running in threads of scarlet down his cheek. She looked at the sleeping lion in her lap and sobbed loudly, crying for everything she had lost. She had lost her parents, she had lost her daughter, and now she had lost Gene. Alex had nothing left to live for. There was no point in being in this world anymore. She let out a scream of rage, opening her eyes to stare at the man she had grown to love.

He was gone. She'd never see him again. He had once told her that he would be out making a difference until the day he died. Alex knew he had made a difference. He had saved dozens of civilians, pushing them away from the riot whilst running towards it himself.

She sat there, refusing to let go of Gene. She renewed his promise, to her, making it for herself. She would make a difference in the world.

There was another explosion and Alex felt pain burning in her belly. She looked down to see scarlet staining her shirt. She knew instantly that the ambulances wouldn't get there in time. Tears started to run down her face. It was the end of her time there in 1983, the end of the world, and there was no one who could call her back now.

She continued to hold Gene in her arms as the world slowly started to swirl around her, as the fires that flickered slowly faded to black. Only one thought ran through her head as her brain slowly shut down.

_I couldn't keep my promise. I never made a difference._

**Rant**


End file.
